A Climate of Fairness Environmental Taxation and Tax Justice in Developing Countries
This report by the Vienna Institute for International Dialogue and Cooperation aims to address this potential conflict and to consider the trade-offs and complementarities between environmental taxation and social equity.
It analyses the role that environmental taxation has to play in obtaining tax justice and considers whether and to what extent environmental taxation can contribute to more progressive and sustainable tax systems and more equitable societies in developing countries.
The report is divided into two chapters. The first chapter examines possible linkages and complementarities between environmental taxation and tax justice, by purporting to explain the policy considerations countries, and particularly developing countries, ought to undertake when introducing environmental taxes. The objective is to provide guidance both from the fiscal and regulatory perspectives, while exploring the potential for environmental taxes to contribute to more progressive and sustainable tax systems and more equitable societies in developing countries. The second chapter looks at specific examples of environmental taxes in low- and middle-income countries. The objective is to analyse the environmental, social, economic and fiscal impacts of environmental taxes in these countries and to draw conclusions on the compatibility of environmental taxation and the principles of tax justice.